WINTER ANGLING. 277 



may build a "smudge" on the library table, but the 

 most successful winter anglers I know use for this 

 purpose a hollow tube of convenient length with a 

 bowl at one end and a set of teeth, either real or 

 artificial, at the other. The bowl may be filled with 

 any harmless weed capable of burning slowly as, for 

 example, tobacco. As a rule, one of these will answer 

 the purpose, but if the flies are especially troublesome, 

 or the angler should chance to be bald-headed, he may 

 be forced to ask a brother angler to come to his assist- 

 ance with a contrivance of a similar nature. Together 

 they will probably be able to defy all attacks of the 

 black flies or even the blues. 



As to creels (or baskets) the merest mention will 

 suffice. At the nearest newspaper office will be found 

 one of suitable size and fair proportions. It is called 

 a " waste basket " and is specially constructed to hold 

 the abnormal catches made by winter anglers. 



Possibly the highest charm of winter angling (or as 

 some call it "Fireside Fishing") is the grand wide 

 ranging freedom of it. Three vast realms are at one's 

 command. The realm of Memory, with its myriad 

 streams of recollection filled with the fish and fancies of 

 the Past. The realm of Anticipation bright with 

 golden dreams of the coming open season, and lastly 

 the realm of Pure Lying, wherein from the deep, dark 

 pools of his own inner turpitude the angler at each 

 cast hooks a speckled-sided Hallucination (Salmo 

 Hallucionidus), a large-mouthed Prevarication (Ml- 



